Leanne Toshiko Simpson is a Japanese Canadian writer, educator and psychiatric survivor from Scarborough. She is a graduate of UTSC Creative Writing and the University of Guelph’s MFA, and is currently completing a SSHRC-supported EdD in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto, studying the intergenerational impact of the Japanese Canadian internment.

Leanne teaches disability arts and BIPOC literature at the University of Toronto and runs workshops for mad writers in hospitals, museums and cultural centres across Toronto. She also co-founded Mata Ashita, an intergenerational writing circle for Japanese Canadians of all experiences. Her debut novel, Never Been Better won the 2025 Kobo Prize in Romance and was released in Canada, the US, Germany, Brazil and the Netherlands. You can find her on Instagram at @leannetoshiko.